Grupe: Messing with Delta hurts all users

Wednesday

Aug 27, 2014 at 12:01 AM

Alex BreitlerRecord Staff Writer

San Joaquin County cannot survive in isolation.

So says farmer and prominent developer Fritz Grupe, who spent the past year quietly helping experts across the state develop a 15-year, $40 billion-plus plan to address California’s perpetual water problems.

The final report, published without fanfare earlier this month, takes no position on Gov. Jerry Brown’s controversial twin tunnels.

Some who helped write the new plan are tunnels supporters, however, and Grupe’s willingness merely to collaborate with them will attract criticism from some quarters of the Delta.

In an interview Tuesday, Grupe said the group’s frequent meetings helped him to understand perspectives outside this region. Once the matter of the tunnels had been shoved out of the way, he said the group was able to agree on about 90 percent of what must be done.

“One of the things I personally gained out of it was learning other people’s problems,” Grupe said. “I also found out that a lot of people I thought were my adversaries really weren’t. They were interested in my problems, too, because they recognized they’re not going to get what they want if they mess over the Delta. It’s just not going to happen.”

A diverse range of power players signed onto the final document, including the Los Angeles-based Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and the Westlands Water District, which comprises San Joaquin Valley farms that rely heavily upon the Delta.

Also in the room were some Northern California interests, including the Contra Costa Water District and the East Bay Municipal Utility District. Some Delta counties also participated (though San Joaquin County did not, Grupe said).

The report calls for California to “shed parochial views” about water, and to forge consensus on solutions that will help everyone. For example, it calls for protecting watersheds, storing water below and above ground and for strengthening levees.

It also recommends the restoration of tens of thousands of acres of wetland habitat in the Delta — a staple of the separate twin tunnels plan, which remains unpopular with Delta farmers.

As to the thorny issue of how water is shipped through the Delta, the report says improvements are needed but stops short of endorsing the tunnels. That decision, the group says, is best left to the governor’s ongoing process known as the Bay Delta Conservation Plan.

To date, that process has focused primarily on the concept of building tunnels or a surface canal. Grupe said the Delta representatives in his group are concerned about that. Asked if he was comfortable with the language in the new report, he said, “It’s as good as we could do to get the other 90 percent."

Grupe brought the group together with the help of Delta policy veteran Sunne Wright McPeak and Fresno businessman Pete Weber. Their effort builds on similar collaborations within the California Partnership for the San Joaquin Valley in recent years.

While the new plan isn’t binding, Grupe said he hopes it will help policymakers. It has received little public attention, and Stockton environmentalist Bill Jennings dismissed it Tuesday as “irrelevant.”

Jennings argues that weighty water matters ultimately will be decided in courtrooms, not in feel-good voluntary collaborations.

“Water is a zero-sum game in California,” he said. “'Kumbaya’ processes work where there is a real win-win solution. When you’re dealing with limited resources like water and there is going to be pain involved, ‘Kumbaya’ doesn’t fly.”

But Grupe said the report should show that California water interests have more in common than people might realize. He said the state as a whole must be considered.

“I own ground and develop ground and sell products to people who live outside of this county,” he said. “I want a successful state. I build in Southern California. I want Southern California to be successful and to buy my apples, to buy my wine.”

Grupe said it’s important for local residents not to “drop their guard” when it comes to defending the Delta. And he said that a healthy water supply in San Joaquin County, where he has 2,400 acres of crops, remains his most significant personal economic concern.

“But having said that, my agriculture can’t be successful without the rest of the state being successful,” Grupe said. “I don’t think getting what they want has to screw me. I don’t think our goals are mutually exclusive.”

Contact reporter Alex Breitler at (209) 546-8295 or abreitler@recordnet.com. Follow him at recordnet.com/breitlerblog and on Twitter @alexbreitler.